“PotashCorp obviously had to make decisions with respect to their own business about moving production to Rocanville, which is my understanding what they’re doing.”

PotashCorp said in a news release that the decision is being made to optimize production at its lowest-cost operations, including Rocanville, near the Manitoba boundary, and other Saskatchewan sites.

Spokesman Randy Burton said the company knows it’s difficult for employees and families.

“(It’s) a hard decision to take and we’re going to do everything we can to treat our employees respectfully and provide them with the best assistance we can in terms of severance and transition,” Burton said.

The company also said production will be temporarily reduced at two other locations southeast of Saskatoon. The Lanigan facility will curtail production for six weeks beginning in January and the Allan facility will do so for 12 weeks beginning in February.

The number of temporary layoffs aren’t known yet.

PotashCorp says it’s looking for opportunities to reassign employees during the down time.

“Cory is a higher-cost facility so we want to be producing more of that red potash at lower-cost locations,” Burton said. “Overall, our employee count in Saskatchewan is higher now than two years ago.”

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